Forbes Shire Council has been officially declared the naming rights sponsor for the Forbes Camel Races. The races are a major event and a most enjoyable day for our town. It is our privilege to be the major sponsor. I hope you all come along on Good Friday, 30th March and make it a spectacular day.

Talking about successful and enjoyable events, I hope you all take the chance to enjoy the skills on show at the Barefoot Waterskiing tournament in Forbes this weekend. An ever expanding event, it is great to see classes and entertainment for all to enjoy.

Councillor Webb and I attended the Centroc meeting in Condobolin this week. While the main topics of discussion were the Bell’s Line and Joint Organisations, it was a pleasure to be hosted at the new pavilion at the showground. It is a fantastic new venue for the Condobolin community.

The live streaming of Council’s recent Vanfest public meeting has been well received with more than 3,000 views since it was aired live. It was pleasing to note just as many people watched the live feed as well as attending the meeting. Council will certainly be looking to live stream other events to enable everyone to participate.

Thank you to those who successfully organised it and to those who tuned in. It is an exciting move into the future for all.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Forbes Shire Council

Tomorrow is a big day for Bedgerabong with the running of the annual races. The races are one of the biggest occasions on the local social calendar and draws visitors from near and far. My congratulations to the organisers who have worked so hard to put on a top quality race meeting.

Later this month, the Federal Minister for Transport will inspect the Newell Highway between West Wyalong and Parkes. As we all know this road was severely affected by flooding during 2016, which caused substantial financial loss. A number of us will represent the Shire and we will be making the case for flood proofing the Newell.

We’re grateful the Minister has taken an interest in our submissions.

The General Manager and I attended CENTROC last week. Most of the Councils who are currently a part of CENTROC will be a part of the joint organisations. A decision needs to be made by 28th February.

Council was considering us being a part of CENTROC at this week’s Council meeting.

The other issue discussed at the CEN TROC meeting was the Bells Line of Road and our link to Sydney. We will be trying to put more pressure on the government to get an adequate and appropriate link to the Sydney basin.

Finally, we met with the Golfers Association this week. The association really does deserve congratulations for the professionalism they have displayed in maintaining our golf course to such a high standard.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Thank you to everyone for coming along to the Vanfest 2017 public meeting held on Tuesday night. There were plenty of people champing to have their say and positive comments about our live stream. I believe the engagement went well and look forward to reading the comprehensive audit report. I am very excited to announce that Forbes Shire Council will be hosting International Women’s Day with a breakfast on Thursday, 8th March. The theme for 2018 is ‘Leave no woman behind’. We have a very exciting guest speaker to be announced soon.

On a personal level and with my background in health, I am trying to introduce an app on the Forbes Shire website to show the location of all AED’s ( automated external defibrillators) within our Shire. I think this would be a potentially lifesaving resource.

It is a busy week of meetings next week including the Council meeting on Thursday, 15th February. Meetings commence at 1.00pm and all are welcome to attend.

A reminder that the March Council meeting will be held at Bedgerabong. Here’s hoping the weather will be a little kinder to us for the much loved Bedgerabong Races next weekend. Please come out in fashion for this very social and fun day.

I have the great pleasure of attending the Zone 6 Showgirl Finals in Blayney that same day and supporting our Forbes and Bedgerabong Miss Showgirls, Grace Allen and Heather Earney, and wish them both well.

 

Congratulations Forbes! What a fantastic long weekend of celebrations. Everything at the Australia Day breakfast, swim and celebrations were well organised, well attended and very worthwhile events.

I am sure you will all agree our ambassador James Pittar was an absolute delight to host. He is an elite athlete and an outstanding human being.

I think the new site worked very well for the Australia Day events and people have been very complimentary of the festivities.

I personally thought the fireworks were spectacular, the best I’ve seen at one of our events.

Then on Monday, Forbes had the world’s attention when we hosted the Queen’s Baton Relay. I think we performed very well on the international stage with two very unique baton journeys, in a dragon boat and on a skateboard. I was very, very proud. We hosted such a fantastic event and stood out from the crowd. My sincere thanks to the Forbes Shire Council staff for organising the event and to the many people who attended and supported it.

Next week will be busy, with the Vanfest public meeting on Tuesday night. We would like everyone to come along for drinks and refreshments at 5.30pm with the meeting to start at 6.00pm and aiming to finish at 7.30pm.

On Wednesday, the Director of Engineering and Technical services, John Zannes and I will be attending the Newell Highway Taskforce in Gilgandra.

Then on Thursday, 8th February I will be in Orange for the CENTROC meeting.

Mayor Graeme Miller

I hope to see you all at the Australia Day celebrations. We have a full agenda of activities all day. There is the free Rotary breakfast from 7am to 9am at Apex Park and the Digger’s Family Swim is from 11am to 2pm with a free barbecue lunch and pool entry. Then at 5.30pm there will be food, live entertainment and plenty of fun activities at the Australia Day Party in the Park at Lions Park.

We encourage all families to pack a picnic, bring a rug or some chairs and settle in to enjoy the festivities concluding with the fireworks at 9pm from Bates Bridge.

It is a busy time in Forbes, with us welcoming the Queen’s Baton Relay on Monday. We are very excited to be transporting the baton in a dragon boat on Lake Forbes as a first and very unique way of celebrating its arrival in Forbes. We hope you can all join us and line the streets to welcome and cheer along the baton bearers, some of our outstanding citizens, and the convoy that has accompanied the baton on it’s longest ever relay in history.

From the Forbes Sport and Recreation Club, the baton will travel Lachlan Street down to Stephan Field (the skatepark) for the community celebration which will include live entertainment, ice-creams to cool off and a skating demonstration. Following this, the baton and convoy will make its way out to the Parkes Road.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Forbes Shire Council

 

Have you nominated someone for the Forbes Shire Council Citizen or Young Citizen of the Year award? Today is your last chance with nominations closing at 5pm. Please take the time to nominate someone who truly deserves to be acknowledged for making a difference in our community.

Last weekend Deputy Mayor Jenny Webb and I had the great pleasure of attending the Amazing Forbes Elvis Breakfast. It was an outstanding success and the 300 people who attended agreed. It is absolutely something to build on for future years. A big thanks to Council staff for their efforts to organise the event and the local businesses that supported it.

Well done to the Forbes Youth Action Team who organised public screenings of two family movies to help beat holiday boredom. There was a good amount of interest from the community. Watch out every holiday for similar events.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Australia Day activities on Friday. I am excited to welcome James Pittar, an Australian visually impaired endurance swimmer, as our ambassador to Forbes. Our Australia Day activities begin at 7am with a free Rotary breakfast at Apex Park, then onto the Diggers Family Swim from 11am to 2pm before the fun begins at the Party In Park from 5.30pm until 9pm. There will be entertainment, rides, live music, paddle boats and dragon boats, CWA damper cooking and fireworks to enjoy. Hope to see you there.

Graeme Miller

Forbes Mayor

 

Council Comments With Cr Grant Clifton

Wishing you all a very safe and Merry Christmas and looking forward to another busy New Year for Council. Forbes Shire Council has achieved a lot this year through its works and community programs.

Congratulations to all the businesses which have supported and participated in the 2017 Christmas promotion, it has been a tremendous initiative. Don’t forget tomorrow’s major draw at noon. Good luck to all the shoppers in the Find It In Forbes Christmas promotion. I think this is the best Christmas promotion and light display we have ever had, it has ensured Forbes has not gone unnoticed.

Nominations are now open for our Senior and Junior Citizen of the Year Awards which will be presented at the Australia Day celebrations. These awards celebrate the outstanding members of our community who really make this a great place to live. I encourage everyone to nominate outstanding residents for the work they do to enhance the Forbes community. Nomination forms are available at Council or online, under events on the Forbes Shire Council website.

Have you received your copy of the Forbes Community News? It is Forbes Shire Council’s quarterly newsletter and is being circulated through Australia Post, copies can also be collected at the Council administration office or it can be viewed online.

Stay safe over the holiday period and I hope you all get to enjoy a well-earned rest. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This week was our last Council meeting for 2017. The year certainly has been a productive one and together we’ve achieved some great things. Our new General Manager, Steve Loane is settling in well and all signs point to an even better 2018 for the Forbes Shire. Amongst the issues discussed at the meeting were the fees imposed on mobile food vans and Council’s 260 and 355 committees. We thank the community for their patience and I hope we’re close to having our committee structure right.

We’ve received a large number of complements on the Christmas decorations that Council recently installed around the CBD. We’re delighted with the results and we thank residents for their positive feedback.

The decorations certainly have helped the community get into the Christmas spirit.

Nominations are now open for our Senior and Junior Citizen of the Year Awards which will be presented on Australia Day.

These awards have a long history and have been presented to many community minded residents of the Forbes Shire. I’d encourage everyone to have a think and nominate outstanding residents for the work they do to enhance the Forbes community.

Last Sunday I attended the ordination of the Reverend Crystal Spindler, who is the new minister at St Johns Anglican Church. I had the opportunity to address the congregation and to wish Reverend Crystal the best in her new role. It truly is a privileged position she occupies in our community.

Mayor Graeme Miller

This has been a very busy week for myself, General Manager Steve Loane and Councillors Jenny Webb, Jeff Nicholson, Phyllis Miller, Steve Karaitiana and Susan Chau attending the Local Government NSW Annual Conference in Sydney.

There were many highlights of the conference and Forbes Shire Council was able to successfully put forward its two motions concerning financial institutions and chain of responsibility. We will prepare a full report on the conference to be presented at Council.

It was certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas over the weekend with so many outstanding entries at the Rotary Ipomoea Christmas Tree Festival. There were more than 120 entries this year and the hall was transformed into a Christmas wonderland.

It was very disappointing that Vanfest 2017 had to be cancelled on Saturday due to the extreme weather conditions and major safety concerns. Ticket sales were well above previous years and everyone was ready for a really great event. Great job to staff and the community who organised emergency accommodation in town and helped everyone get out safely. Council staff have already commenced work on the post-event audit. The community will be engaged in due course throughout and following the audit process.

Thank you to the hundreds of families who attended the Carols by Candlelight on Sunday night. The town band did a great job and it was wonderful to have the Town Hall filled with beautiful voices and music. The Christmas spirit was well and truly alive.

Mayor Graeme Miller

Parliamentary Secretary for Western NSW, Rick Colless and Member for Orange, Phillip Donato, presented the Forbes District Soccer Club with a cheque of $146,236 on Monday for the refurbishment and rebuilding at the Forbes Botanical Gardens sportsground.

This is great news for the multipurpose sports facility and will help fund significant improvements in the amenities at the grounds. Council has also committed $150,000 for the project which will include new toilets with disabled access, storage and change rooms.

More than 5,000 weekend passes have been sold for Vanfest this weekend. This is going to prove to be a massive boost for our town. Ticket sales have already exceeded our expectations and we are grateful for this injection of funds into our local economy. Make sure you have got your tickets to be a part of this music festival. I might look a little bit out of place but I will also be there to enjoy it on Saturday night.

I’m looking forward to attending the Rotary Ipomoea Club’s Christmas Tree Festival tonight, starting at 6pm. This is a great way to start the festive season and I look forward to seeing if the club has the 100 entries it was aiming for this year.

A reminder to all, Carols by Candlelight will be on Sunday night. Starting at 7pm, it is a wonderful family evening to spend together and I look forward to seeing you there.

Mayor Graeme Miller